


Give the Devil His Due

by Kaboomatic



Category: One Piece
Genre: Am I supposed to do more tags?, Demons, Eldritch, Gen, Is there some sort of ao3 tag etiquette, What the heck are tags, eh that's about it, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27390295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaboomatic/pseuds/Kaboomatic
Summary: Raftel's never been just an island. It's old and twisted and dark in the way only a pirate can appreciate. When Roger walked the isle, something changed within him. A dark deal struck at the dead of midnight, a blood pact under a blood red sky, a sacrifice made to save a friend, or even nothing at all. Only those there on that fateful night. What is known is that roger changed, becoming twisted and dark. And so did his crew. Now, with Roger's crown on the brow of another, Raftel is being a bit more proactive with its twisting and corruption. After all, if you know who the king is, why wait for him to reach his throne?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Give the Devil His Due

**Author's Note:**

> Hey yall, this is my first ever fic, I really hope yall enjoy. This little thing started off as something for WhirlyBird70, they do some really lit eldritch stuff if you want to check it out, and then took on a life of its own.

Roger steps onto Raftel and nothing is ever the same. 

Only the souls who pledged themselves to him, from Silvers Rayleigh to Shanks and Buggy and everyone else in between, Roger Pirates one and all, know what happened on that island, only they know the truth.

(And if you get Crocus drunk enough on enough whiskey to kill a giant, if Rayleigh sees something of his old captain in you and doesn’t recoil in fear, if you pay Buggy enough money and he obliges for an island’s ransom, if you ask Shanks kindly enough and he obliges for a story and a song, they might tell you.)

Raftel twists and it shifts and it warps and it breaks as the first king in history (but not the last, never the last) to walk its shores strikes a deal with an entity older than time. And the world twists and it shifts and it warps and it breaks as history is rewritten.

(For Raftel is the present and the future and the past all wrapped up in one, the graveyard and prison and killer of the gods of time and fate and the devourer of their power).

History is rewritten, stretching back to the death of the gods, and none are more changed than those damned souls that pledged themselves to Gol D. Roger.

Rayleigh changes first. The crew always joked that he was the shadow of Roger, and now he’s that and more, a wraith of darkness and blackness and void, a being who could strip life from anyone with just a touch. The Dark King, Roger’s dark reflection. 

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, he was still called the Dark King, and while Shakky loved him with all her heart, some days the shadows in the bar became longer and sharper and inched their way to her husband and Shakky wondered what exactly had she married.)

Crocus goes second, and becomes more flower than man, a thing of plant and change and bloody bloody mutation that can turn men into hellbeasts with a thought, sustain life after death, and create ghosts of those who would never come back. 

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, Crocus was horrified by what he’d become, and, using the skill of the King’s doctor and the powers of a demon, excised his demon and tossed it into the sea. But the corruption is still around, and the Lily Carnation still hungers for blood.)

Oden goes third, and unlike all the others, while his body doesn’t change (for Wano is a place of ancient gods and ancient pacts and Raftel will honor all agreements, even the ones it was forced into), his mind, soul, and even his past are warped beyond recognition. No child can kill a bear at age four, and the red light district of Oden’s home has too much pride to let a six year old roam their streets. Oden was already immensely strong, but Raftel changed that, giving him the strength of a demon and the appetite to match. 

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, Oden was the only one to stay the same, for Wano supped from the blood of gods, same as Raftel, and it protects all its children.)

Inuarashi and Nekomamushi go fourth, even after Oden begs them not to, and become whirling death and a darkened moon and howling beasts, animals twisted into something dark, primal, and ferocious. (For the Mink tribe and their electro have existed for ages, but the sulong was a creation of Raftel.)

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, the sulong was locked behind the full moon. But while Roger lived, there was a reason why the mink tribe was the most feared group in the New World, and why no sane man ever ventured close to Zunisha.)

Scopper Gaban and Nozdon and all the others change too, into death and pain and war and battle, demons of the sea and the salt and the blood red sand, but they leave something behind and they're never the same afterwards. 

(Raftel rewrites history for the Pirate King, but nothing comes without a price, and that price is the history of most of his crew. They aren't people anymore, just tools and weapons. The world remembers nothing about Scopper Gaban and Nozdon and all the others, just names, faces, and power. A weapon needs nothing else.)

Shanks and Buggy go second to last, even while everyone else begs and pleads and threatens and bribes them, anything in order for them to stay  _ children _ and not become demons like the rest of Roger’s Crew. (Because even demons have those they care about, and the Oro Jackson’s cabin boys are  _ theirs _ and should never have to go through what they did). It’s the first time Buggy stands up to the crew and the first time Shanks ever disobeys their wishes. Both Buggy and Shanks change, and nobody can stop them.

Shanks changes in body, becoming blood on the wind, a keening tide of red that hungers for pain and fear and loss, a demon whose hair is made of blood. (Rookies find it odd that the epithet of one of the Four Emperors is ‘Red Hair’. The veterans hear that name and remember a man who’s every hair is a soul he killed.)

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, Shanks becomes less blood and more man, but still keeps some of that cruelty and sadism. Luffy had to learn how to destroy dreams from somebody, after all.)

Buggy’s body and soul belong to another, a foul tasting fruit sealing a pact with the Sea Devil, the last of the Old Gods. Raftel cannot change his body. Instead, Raftel changes his mind, turning it into a twisted, mad thing, a thing that allows Buggy to create cannonballs that can obliterate fortresses and destroy islands. (If CP9 had managed to get Pluton’s blueprints, they would have gone after Buggy next, for he was the only one able to make ammunition worthy of an Ancient Weapon)

(And after Roger’s death, after the crew became less demon and more human, Buggy sealed that part of him away forever, out of fear, not for what others would do to him, but what he would do to others.)

Roger, of course, goes last, not out of cowardice, but because his crew insists that they go first. He doesn’t change. Roger has always been the way he is, larger than life with a grin wide enough to split the heavens, and a darkness large enough to swallow the earth.

(And who do men fear more, the demons, or the one who holds their leash?)

Ace is not and will not be changed in the slightest, for while Raftel changes all who are related to the Pirate King, past, present, and future, Portgas D. Ace is not related to the Pirate King. He is the son of Whitebeard now and forevermore. 

(For what are the ties of mortal blood to an island who has already drunk deep of the ichor of gods?)

Ace might not be the son of the past Pirate King, but he is the brother of the future one, and when Luffy made it to Raftel, he would have become a thing of blood and flame, a demon of hellfire with a burning crown, a prince of the inferno. 

(But Ace did not live to see his brother become the King, he died in magma and war and a broken promise and a ‘thank you for loving me’, and Raftel will never reverse death. It did once, only once, and Joy Boy has been a thorn in their side for millenia)

There are other changes, of course. Garp’s fist was always strong enough to demolish mountains, but he would have never harmed a hair on a child’s head. Whitebeard was always near-invincible, but there are always pirates willing to stab someone in the back. Kaido was always the last of the true dragons, but no dragon was ever as impervious to pain as he is. Big Mom always loved sweets, but not to the point of near-mindlessness. The World Government was always ruled by the World Nobles, but once upon a time they were people, not the caricatures they’ve become now. But the changes to Roger’s crew were the greatest, and the main reason for Raftel to slumber for over a decade.

Now, a generation after its last change, its last pact, Raftel wakes up. But this time, it isn’t content with merely waiting for the King to walk its shores. The king is right there, carrying a piece of Raftel’s power on its brow, and the tendrils of the island of death (and demons and corruption and pain and loss and a hundred other dead gods of sin) stretch far indeed.


End file.
